Piston ring



Dec. 1, 1936. c. AA. MARIEN Er Al.

PISTON RING Filed Dec. 3, 1954 uil;

wil

3 .MWI

, /Nvfwroeg CHAR/.55 AMAR/EN,

Patented Dec. 1,1936

s UNITED sTATEs Pis'roN RING,l

Charles A. Marlen and Melvin W. Marien, St. Louis, Mo., assignors to Ramsey Accessories Manufacturing Corporation, St. Louis, Mo., a y

corporation of Missouri Application December 3, 1934, Serial No. 755,656

` z claims. (ci. sos-'45) on the market, the function of which is to pre' vent oil leakage. Most of these rings are effective under certain conditions and for short periods of time. However, none are entirely satisfactory in that they do not effect oil control to the extent ,f desirable for the" best operation of the engine with the greatest economy. This is true because the quantities of oil that surge against the lower oil ring cannot be completely drained through the ring, and much of the oil is forced past the ring on the down stroke of the piston. Furthermore, pressure is exerted by the accumulated oil which often unseats the ring and allows oil to ow past it.

We have provided an oil ring that disposes of most of the excess oil before it has an opportunityy to get past the lower edge of the ring face. We accomplish this object by embodying in our improved ring a downwardly extending flange having a shearing edge in the immediate vicinity of the horizontal slots at the toprof the piston skirt. The manner of accomplishing this object, as well as other advantages inherent in the invention, will -be better apparent from a detailed -description of the invention in connection with the -accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a piston within an engine cylinder shown in section, said piston being equipped with our improved oil control ring; Fig. 2 is a horizontal cross-section taken onthe line 2 2 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a combined side elevation and cross-section of our improved ring somewhat enlarged; Fig. 4 is a further enlarged cross-section through our improved ring and parts of the cylinder and piston :adjacent thereto, said section being taken on a plane indicated by the line ,4-4 of Fig. 2; Fig. 4a, is a section similar to the section shown in Fig. 4,

except that the plstonr'ing has been shifted to the opposite side of the groove which occurs on the down stroke of the piston; Fig. 5 is a section similar to that shown in Fig.`4a showing a modi- -ed form of an oil control ring and an inner ring behind the oil control ring; 'and Fig. 6 is a com- Vbined side elevation and crossfsection of the modified form of oil control ring shown `in section in Fig. 5. I

.Referring to the drawing, C represents an engineA cylinder in which a piston P operates, said piston being of the type having a slotted skirt S. `In the form of piston illustrated, there is a* longitudinally disposed slot a and oppositely disposed horizontal slots b, b', the former of which is in communication with the longitudinal slot a. 'I'his type of piston is Well known in the art, and the slots b, bv are primarily for preventing excess heat conduction to the skirt and incidentally for the purpose of draining excess oil ac cumulations below the piston ring' lands.

The upper part of the pistony is provided with a plurality ofrring grooves I, I, I in which are usually disposed the ordinary type of compression rings 2, 2, 2. Below the bottom groove I is a ring groove 3 in which is disposed our improved oil ring 4. It is the usual practice to relieve the upper part of the piston by providing clearances for the ring lands 5, 6, l, 8 and 9. The clearances increase toward the top of the piston as it is there that the piston is subjected to the greatest amount of 4expansion under the heat ofl operation. In pistons provided with hoi'- izontal slots such as b and b' adjacent to the voil landj the bottom land 9, termed the oil ring land, hasA slightly greater vclearance than lthe other lands'so as to provide a reservoir for excess oil from which the oil is drained through the slots.

Our invention contemplates a still further reduction in the diameter of the oil ring land so as to provide a well dened oifset entirely around the piston immediately above the horizontal slots b and b', which offset is utilized as a working space for one ofthe ring component. The ring comprises a horizontal component I0 and a vertical component II depending therefrom and formed integral therewith so that our improved ring is L-shaped in cross-section. The outwardly presented surfaces I2 and' I3 of the components I0 and II lare coincident so as to form a continuous working face for contact with the`engine cylinder. 'I'he oil land 9 is undercut or reduced in diameter just sufciently to provide -clearance I4 behind the ring to allow for the expansion of the piston under the heat o f operation. The clearance space I5 between the component IIJ and the bottom of groove 3 results from using the groove depth prescribed by the industry and is of standard practic...

The length of the component II of the ringl 4 is such that the bottom edge e thereof extends 4downen-.ordm nightly below the edge land 9. The working face of the ring, comprising the surfaces I2 and I3.' is tapered outwardly.

taper .of the working face of the ring and inounation of the bottom surfaoe just described gives the edge e a shearing action and insures that the edge e will effectively remove surplus oil from the cylinder wall and direct it into the slots b, b. The ring component I0 is provided with a plurality of slots I8 extending entirely around the circumference thereof, and the wall I9 of the piston behind the ring groove 3 is provided with oil drainage ports 20 so that suchoil as will get past the edge e will be trapped -in the slots I8 and will not be able to exert a pressure between the ring and the cylinder wall, but-instead will drain through the slots I8 and ports 20 and flow back into the crank- In Figs. 5 and 6, we show a modification of the invention in which the vertical component II' of the ring I is provided with an outwardly presented channel 2| lwhich will further serve as an oil depository until drainage is eected through the slots I 8' in the ring. The channel obviously reduces the area of the ring face and thus increases the unit pressure thereof against the cylinder wall. The bottom surface I1' of the vertical component II is slightly curved or concave instead of straight as shown in the main form. Y

Our improved oil control ring may be 'used either without an inn'er spring ring or with an inner spring ring 22 as shown in Figs. 5 and 6. The inner spring ring. 8S is`well known in the art, is preferably of a polygonal shape and is provided with oil drainage recesses 23 in its lower edge so as not to obstruct the ports 2l in the wall I9 of the piston P. I

I6 of` When our improved oil control ring is to be used in new cylinders we prefer that the ring be used without an inner spring ring. However, in old cylinders,"which may be out of round or otherwise irregularly worn, the best performance of the oil control ring is obtained when an inequipped with our improved oil control ring, oil that is sheared from ,the cylinder wall by the bottom edge e of the ring will be directed toward and ow freely through the slots b, b rather than be forced pastor behind the ring into the upper part of the cylinder. The extending of the piston ring downwardly so as to bring the shearing edge e practically opposite the drainage slots b, b makes the escape of the oil through said slots the line of least'resiStanCe. Having described our invention, we claim:

l. A piston packing ring comprising a 'split ring of L-shape cros-lection embodying a horizontal component and a vertical component, the

outer'faces of said components lying in a ccmmon surface and'forming a continuous working face, said horizontal component having a plu-l rality of circumferentially disposed openings.

and the vertical component having a circumfer-A entially disposed groove formed in -its outer face.

2. A piston ring for engine pistons comprising a split ring having a horizontalcomponent and a vertical component, the outer surfaces of 

